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Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue | Before & After

Hi friends! I hope you all had an amazing weekend! Thank you for your kind encouraging comments on Friday’s post. You guys are always so supportive and sweet! xo

Today is all about painting cheap furniture – ahh, I mean mass-value produced furniture – and here’s why…

Last week I received an email from Lou Butt – editor of Reloved. Here’s a small portion of what was sent to contributors….

“Please note: Furniture must be readily accessible to Reloved’s readership. While a stunningly, ornate sideboard with distinctive moulding can look utterly beautiful when upcycled, readers would like to see what they can do with some furniture that is similar to that which they can pick up at charity shops, on eBay, at car boot sales….”

She makes a good point. Who doesn’t love transforming a shapely ornate vintage piece. But let’s face it, detailed solid vintage furniture is a little more scarce vs mass produced. And I’d argue, it’s a little more challenging taking an ordinary mass produced piece and turning it into something you’d be proud to showcase in your home… or is it?

When I saw this $10 thrift store lingerie dresser I thought – perfect. This piece was built in a high volume factory. It’s manufacturer is Homestead by Sears but you can find furniture just like this at Ikea, Walmart, Rooms-To-Go or even HomeDepot.

This type of furniture is made from man made materials like melamine/laminate, mdf, masonite, particle board and usually paired with some solid wood. It’s not a bad piece of furniture. It’s cute. Sturdy. And it’s the kind of piece that you can easily find at your local thrift store or on Craigslist.

Lingerie Dresser How To:

I started with the repair. In the before pic, you can probably see there’s a piece missing on the front top lip. It was easily fixed using Bondo and a paint stick.

After the repair, my goal was to keep it clean and simple. I restyled this lingerie dresser using color (Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue) and Hobby Lobby hardware. Nothing else. No fancy painting techniques. The chalk paint was applied using a roller and a brush for the smaller areas. It took two coats of paint and I lightly sanded between each coat. The edges and details were very lightly sanded and distressed. Then it was protected and given a beautiful satin sheen using Annie Sloan Clear Wax.

Amazing what a change in color and some new hardware can do!

This piece is so feminine and sweet!

Oh, and thanks for all your color suggestions on Facebook btw! I went with Dora’s Duck Egg Blue but they were all inspiring color ideas!

I hope this restyle has inspired you to take a second look at more readily available mass produced pieces of furniture. If you like the shape and style and the piece is still in good shape, adding some color and new hardware can easily transform the look!

Would you have picked up this lingerie dresser for $10? Have you had success painting furniture from Sears, Ikea or similar box stores? Feel free to chime in to say ‘hi’ because I always love hearing from you! 🙂

Happy painting friends!

Denise x

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This looks lovely! I always enjoy your pieces. I am hesitant to use Hobby Lobby drawer pulls because the screws are so long and tend to protrude into the drawers. Do you ever have that problem and if so, how do you handle it (no pun intended!)?

You and I think alike! We were given some pieces w/ nice looking raised carving like detail, but it’s pretty plastic like, rest of item good qual mdf. Want to do in a blue, w/ antiquing wax to bring out detail. They’re great big end tables w/ storage/doors to cover. Think Spanish 70’s type. Can’t wait to get them done. Have Waverly paint, which I’ve heard is very thick, so I hope that covers plastic carving so I don’t need another primer! If I can figure out how, I’ll send you a picture when done.

You mentioned painting laminate. Do you have any tips or special techniques for painting Laminate? Can you paint laminate with chalk Paint? I have a few such pieces from Ikea that could use some paint to freshen them up, but not sure how to go about it. Thanks.

Denise- I have a jewelry cabinet very similar to this! I’ve been wanting to paint it but have been scared to try! You’ve done a beautiful job!!! How did you get the hardware off and then did you use the exact same holes or did you bondo them closed and make your own? I’m so interested to know!

Hi Tess! You’re good… you caught it! I missed a step in my ‘How To’ and didn’t realize it until now. Yes, these handles were hard to get off. Once the hardware screws were removed, I put the screwdriver in the hole and knocked the pulls out with a hammer. The top holes were left as-is and the new knobs installed. The bottom drawers required bondo to fill the double hole and the a new hole was drilled dead centre. It’s funny that you mention jewelry cabinet because my sister Andrea wants this piece to store all HER jewellery! Great minds…. 🙂

Really good job! Amazing~ I love this because as you say, most of us don’t have access to really nice furniture (out of my price range for myself)but just look what you did with the average discount offerings! I bought some old side tables from a Mission outlet and have chalked painted them, just needed to apply a sealer. My shoulder hurts too much to wax it~ my sweet hubby bought me this contraption to do the buffing for me. You attach it to an electric drill. It got away from me! Seriously, I couldn’t hold it still long enough to do the job! Shoulda got that on Youtube, it would have gone viral! Hilarious! But *insert sad face here* it did not solve my problem. I’m trying a matte finish poly with a foam brush. So far, so good, but need another coat.

Hi Denise! Ya, a lot of diy’ers don’t have access to affordable vintage furniture. I’ve noticed since painted furniture is becoming more and more popular, the ReStore and Thrift Store furniture prices are on the rise! Yet more ‘common’ pieces like this lingerie dresser can easily be found for a few dollars at thrift stores or garage sales etc. 🙂 You gave me a laugh with your buffing tool story. I would have loved to see that on Youtube. 😉

Boo! 😉 Just kidding. It looks absolutely gorgeous, blue was a great choice!! I love those pulls, too. Did you keep the originals? The pulls on the original were really neat, I can see them getting reused easily. =) Great job as always, Denise!!
By the way–did you brush it on, then smooth it out with a foam roller, or roll it on and then feather it with a brush, or something else? I’m trying to get over my hatred of painting furniture. ;D

Bet you wouldn’t be booing if it was painted in lavenender…lol.;) I kept about 1/2 of the original pulls and the other half got all bent out of shape when I was pulling them off because they were stuck in there good! I used the foam roller on the larger flatter surfaces and a Purdy brush on the smaller areas – nothing fancy – just one or other. 🙂 You can DO IT Zovesta!!! ;D 🙂

Hi Denise. I love the color blue that you chose and those sweet girly handles! Wow. I never would have thought such an ordinary piece of furniture could be transformed into something with such personality.